This invention relates generally to a machine for severing standing crops from the ground to initiate a harvesting process and, more particularly, to a rotary disc cutterbar having a preselected number of transversely oriented, rotatable discs having knives mounted thereon to sever standing crop by an impact action upon rotation of the discs.
Typical disc cutterbars used in agriculture include an elongated housing containing a train of meshed idler and drive spur gears, or a main power shaft or series of power shafts coupled by respective bevel gear sets, for delivering power to respective drive shafts for modular cutterheads spaced along the length of the cutterbar. The cutterheads each comprise a cutting disc including diametrically opposed cutting blades (though configurations with three or more blades are known) and having a hub coupled to an upper end of a drive shaft, the lower end of the drive shaft carrying a spur gear in the case where a train of meshed spur gears is used for delivering power, and carrying a bevel gear of a given one of the bevel gear sets in the case where a main power shaft is used. For background information on the structure and operation of some typical disc cutterbars, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,323, issued to Campbell, the descriptive portions thereof being incorporated herein in full by reference.
Cutterbars frequently impact rocks and other obstructions in a field which can damage the cutterhead or the cutterhead driveline. Modular cutterhead designs allow an individual damaged cutterhead to be removed and replaced without affecting adjacent cutterhead modules. The modular design contains debris from gear failures within an individual module oil sump and reduces debris contamination of adjacent modules. However, replacing a single damaged cutterhead module is not an insignificant task requiring significant disassembly of the cutter bar in order to remove a damaged cutterhead from the cutterbar driveline because of intermediate drive shafts disposed between adjacent modules to transfer power laterally along the cutterbar.
It would be advantageous to have a cutterhead module mounting configuration which would reduce the degree of cutterbar disassembly necessary to allow an individual module to be removed and replaced. Further advantages would be realized by a cutterhead module mounting configuration that supports the modules during the disassembly process thereby lessening the need for temporary supports and improving safety during the module changeout process.